t very different from that of many other
tribes of North American Indians. Their chief characteristic consisted
in the building of extensive earth mounds as symbolical of their
religious and tribal life. They also built immense enclosures for the
purpose of fortification. Undoubtedly on the large mounds were
originally built public houses or dwellings or temples for worship or
burial. Those in the form of a truncated pyramid were used for the
purposes of building sites for temples and dwellings, and those having
circular bases and a conical shape were used as burial places.

Besides these two kinds was another, called effigy mounds, which
represented the form of some animal or bird, which undoubtedly was the
totem of the tribe. These latter mounds were seldom more than three or
four feet high, but were of great extent. They indicated the unity of
the gens, either by representing it through the totem or a mythical
ancestry. Other mounds of less importance were used in religious
worship, namely, for the location of the altar to be used for
sacrificial purposes. All were used to some extent as burial mounds.
Large numbers of their implements made of quartz, chert, bone, and
slate for the household and for the hunt have been found. They used
copper to some extent, which was obtained in a free or native state and
hammered into implements and ornaments.

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Undoubtedly, the centre of the distribution of copper was the Lake
Superior region, which showed that there was a diffusion of cultures
from this centre at this early period. They made some progress in
agriculture, cultivating maize and tobacco. Apparently their commerce
with surrounding tribes was great, which no doubt gave them a variety
of means of life. The pottery, judging from specimens that have been
preserved, was inferior to that of the Mexicans or the Arizona Indians,
but, nevertheless, in the lower Mississippi fine collections of pottery
showing beautiful lines and a large number of designs were found. It
fills one with wonder that a tribe of such power should have begun the
arts of civilization and developed a powerful organization, and then
have been so suddenly destroyed--why or how is not known. In all
probability it is the old story of a sedentary group being destroyed by
the more hardy, savage, and warlike conquerors.

_Other Types of Indian Life_.--While the great centres of culture were
found in Peru, Central America, Mexico, southw